In a multi-part tweetstorm, Krugman linked Ryan’s lauded departure to a recent Politico article that questioned whether Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is too “unlikeable” to be elected President.

According to Krugman,”Lots of things to say about Elizabeth Warren, but top of my list is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — a truly original policy idea that was incredibly successful until Trump sabotaged it. She’s someone who both has deep ideas and gets stuff done. Kind of important?”

He then lashed out at Ryan, who is being replaced by another woman, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

“Today the best House Speaker of modern times reclaims the gavel from the worst. Paul Ryan leaves office with 12%, that’s right, 12% favorability — and 75% unfavorable,” he tweeted

He then added, “Whatever happened to the days when Ryan was a media darling, receiving constant praise for his seriousness and honesty? I’ve talked a lot about how his phoniness was obvious from the beginning,” before linking to a previous column where he called Ryan a “FlimFlam man.”

“What I haven’t talked about, I think, is that Ryan-adulation was always a within-the-Beltway thing — that is, it didn’t reflect any kind of broad public perception. On the contrary, ordinary voters always despised him,” he tweeted, adding, “Strange to say, however, you never ever read stories about how unlikable Ryan was. It was all about the wonderful substance of his ideas — which were, in fact, obviously fraudulent.”

Ouch! So clearly disliked by the majority of Americans but no real mentions about that in the press. Meanwhile Liz Warren, somebody of substance and very popular, gets dinged as "unlikable?" Huh. Is it a patter with the press? Maybe.

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Paul Krugman
@paulkrugman

Meanwhile, press reports about Pelosi's unlikability were legion -- even though she was viewed no less favorably than most speakers

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Paul Krugman
@paulkrugman

What we're seeing here is both sexism and the bias of the news media, which isn't so much partisan as tilted toward politicians who pretend to care about centrist pieties even when they actually treat them with contempt

" 'Individual conscience' means that women only get contraceptives if their employers, their physicians, their pharmacists, their husbands and/or fathers, pastors, and possibly their mayors, Governors, State Secretaries of Health, Congressmen, Senators, and President all agree that in that particular case they're justifiable." --D.C. Sessions

"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."

"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer

""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer

"The Weeds" farewell to Ryan podcast was pretty good on this front too.https://art19.com/sh...f7-a44dff477399
One of my favourite things on the weeds had always been Ezra Klein's absurd good-faith reading of whatever Ryan does and Yglesias telling Klein he is being a naive moron.